Argus

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 52

On the surface of Earth, an oceanic caravan goes slightly off charts in an effort to save a couple days of travel.

Around them, battering waves rise up to the heights of old world skyscrapers.  Living salt leaves impromptu circuits across the keel of a dozen of their ships.  Somewhere nearby, a defense station has recently fired a smart chaff decoy, and the networked intercept particles have joined the hurricane force winds to create a pale mimicry of a sliverstorm.

All ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 192

“How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.” -Annie Dillard, The Writing Life-

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The Red Lion hotel was slightly less of a mess inside than it appeared from the parking lot.

From the front, it looked like a series of a few three story buildings, divided up into hotel rooms, with maybe a few of the ground floor sections set aside for renting out to business conferences or wedding parties.  It also looked like it had been in an active war ...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 51

I've been getting a lot done this week.  Let's continue to hurtle toward wherever this story is going

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My sister has been down here for a very long time.

No matter what she’s done, the station has always had some form of security or containment measure to keep her from leaving the reactor deck, and a few subsystems around it.  But even within that confined zone, there’s been a lot for her to do.

The reactors, the beating hearts of the station that we...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 50

It’s one thing to feel like you’re being held back by an increasingly convoluted series of bureaucratic madness and technical limitations.  It’s another altogether to realize those things have been weaponized against you.

Ennos showed me the command access logs from our recent bout of democracy.  Not all of them; void, no, that would take forever, and mostly be meaningless.  We’ve been at this for a week, Dyn and I having to individually agree on every single elem...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 191

Okay, the break didn't help much, but this chap

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 49

This one is short, different, and mostly just me messing with formatting in a way that I suspect will read better as part of the story and not on its own.  So I apologize for that, but also there will be another chapter soon and I'm writing faster than normal anyway, so I counterbalance that apology.

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>Command structure

./Temporary emergency measures active

>>Emergency crew consensus reached

|\what\|

../Crew voting roster

..//Lily A...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 48

Taking a break didn't really help but here are some cat things anyway.

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I’m out of grade two groundstriker rounds.

This isn’t exactly a huge problem; they’re not hard to fabricate, and it was one of the things I’ve leaned on a lot over the centuries.  One of the first things I figured out how to make the station produce, one of the first things I learned how to make use of, and one of the primary tools for stopping problems.

That last part is a euphem...

Update

Okay, I put a note about this at the front of last week's public chapter, and then completely forgot to put anything *here*.  I'm taking this week off, there won't be chapters of anything this week, but I'm not dead.  Expect more of everything to continue next week.

Also, big apologies for not actually remembering to tell anyone this.

The Daily Grind - Chapter 190

“Strength does not make one capable of rule; it makes one capable of service.” - Brandon Sanderson, The Stormlight Archive -

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Getting into the building had been an experience.

James had forgotten that the company had gone back to an ‘everyone in the building’.  He wasn’t entirely sure *why* they had done that, since according to a profanity-laden email exchange with Theo, everyone had loved working from home and actual results were way up for eve...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 47

The nanoswarm cat and I have been staring at each other for about an hour now.

This is becoming increasingly awkward for me, and I *think* it’s awkward for them too because I’ve noticed the nanoswarm shifting back and forth on its vaguely stable paws.

Dyn has decided this isn’t her department, and has started doing engineering checks on the power core, before we learn from the afterlife that it had a crack in it somewhere.  I can respect this.  Every now and then s...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 189

“The sky above the port was the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel.” -William Gibson, Neuromancer-

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“So you just have to think about it, and you get a sword?”  Morgan asked, feeling a little silly as he said the words.  “I mean, that sounds cool, I guess.”

The other teenager gave a shrug that didn’t do much to cover up a boastful smile.  “It is cool.”  Liam admitted.  “But it’s not just thinking about i...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 46

The airlock hissed as it cycled.  I mean, I assume it hissed.  My suit was a lot of things, but I’d actually forgone high fidelity external audio feeds for the engineering suit.  I’d needed the space to fit a backup control node inside the sealed cat shaped armor.

But it made Dyn nervous, so I assumed a hiss was happening.

Dyn had actually been the one to crack the airlock systems.  I was going to just deploy one of my nanoblooms on it, but without Ennos’...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 45

I think I like this chapter?  Yeah.  I think so.

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Two days ago, during a bit of downtime where I needed to shoot something on the surface but the station hadn’t gotten into the right orbital position yet, I ended up lounging in the gunnery crèche and talking to Ennos while I waited.  Which led to a conversation that I mostly forgot.

“There, see?”  Ennos highlights a file pointer on my AR.  “It moved!”

“Huh.”  I reach a ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 188

I had fifteen other things I wanted this chapter to be, but then it got long, and I still like it so here it is and I'll put the things in the next one.

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“Good morning Hank it’s Tuesday” -John Green, Vlogbrothers-

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“Alright, let’s go over the whole thing again.”  The words were punctuated by a rough slap of paper as the old fashioned notebook Nate liked to use was flipped back a dozen pages and tossed onto the bedside table.

Ja...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 44

Just some casual slice of life stuff in this one.  Because even Lily deserves a break sometimes.

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“Orbital insertion HuKs ready for launch, bays open.”  Ennos’ clipped and technical voice chimes in my left ear.

“Kessler Syndrome opening in twenty seconds.”  Glitter adds, voice a combination of musical and professional.

“Drone swarm online, enhancement networking online, engines primed.”  I check my readouts.  “Namata engine...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 43

Ennos was grumbling at me.

Earlier, I’d checked in with my AI friend to see how they were doing, and gotten what was obviously an abridged version of their quest to track down some piece of pseudo-living code in the depths of the station’s grid.  Now, to be fair, we were actively in the middle of designing a low-speed high-finesse recovery drone - Real America didn’t have recovery drones in their database, go figure - from cobbled together parts of other blueprints so that we...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 187

“I think it’s time we blow this scene.  Get everybody and the stuff together.  Okay. Three. Two. One.  Let’s jam.”  -The Seatbelts, Tank!-

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Gunshots rang out.  Whatever grey lit magic the kid was doing to keep everyone trapped here, it seemed to keep sound in too; the gunshots were louder than they should have been, pops and cracks turned up to the point James was having trouble thinking.

Also because they immediately started cr...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 42

Wake up, eat real food, talk to my friends, garden, study, play an increasingly complex board game with Glitter, eat fake food, play with Dog, build, salvage, sleep.

Repeat.

Repeat over and over and over, until the warm fog of memory holds nothing but the peace of the moment and the horizon of the past.

No one needs anything from me.  No one asks anything of me.  There’s just us, and the future, and the quiet.

But it can’t last.

I face myself.  ...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 186

I have torn out chunks of a thousand words or more and rewritten them at least three times on this chapter.  I'm still not sure I *like* it, but it does what it needs to do.  So, uh... narrative, go!

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“Fill my wounds with molten gold, and make me whole again” -Aisha’s Embrace, Destiny 2-

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There was a certain weary demoralized collapse that occurred in places like strip malls that James had never been able to fully articulate.

So...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 185

“And I’m not your protagonist // I’m not even my own. // I don’t know anything, // I don’t even know what I don’t know.”  -Penelope Scott, Sweet Hibiscus Tea-

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Hours later, James found himself back at the Lair, wondering how it could have only been hours.  Time felt wrapped around him like a cloak, tugged on by unseen wind, thick and heavy.

He had done more today than he had in the last week. The last month, even.  And yet, it was o...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 41

I am, for the first time in my life, sitting across a table from another organic being, as equals.

It’s harrowing, exhilarating, terrifying, vindicating, and also profoundly dull.

I may have chosen the wrong human.  It’s been three hours, and she hasn’t said a single thing to me.  Like she’s spent the whole time processing the fact that I asked her what her name is.

I had, too.  I surreptitiously checked the station surveillance logs after the first ha...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 40

I know I'm writing these slower than before, but I'm in an okay spot right now, so I'll try to get another chapter or two done this week.

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I am on a table of some kind. Or, maybe not a table.  I am not supposed to be on tables, but I have been put here, so it cannot be a table.

It is metal, and smooth, and also warm and alive.  It is a strange not-table.

Also I cannot move.  Am I not supposed to be able to move?  Maybe I am just very tired? &nbs...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 184

And we're back

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“You have no choice you have to choose.”  -Foo Fighters, Something From Nothing-

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The way the Lair was laid out was, originally, with just one floor, mostly three separate parts.  The front, which was supposed to be a lobby or a check in area, the kitchen and dining zone, which had been *sort of* unchanged, and the back, which was… a pool hall?  James couldn’t remember.

The addition of a few dozen greens a...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 39

Not sure about this one, as always!   But that's the fun of writing; building myself a reentry vehicle while midway through burning up in atmosphere.

I should remember that line.  That sounds like a Lily line.

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At a certain point in my life, you’d think that I’d get used to things being stressful.

Oh, hello again.  I didn’t see you there.  I was busy complaining.

Honestly, I think that I might complain a little too m...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 183

Still not feeling great, but at least the chapter is done!

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“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”  - John Boys, Dean of Canterbury -

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James hit the telepad intake platform in a crouched position that didn’t make much spatial sense now that he didn’t have his knee planted on the chest of a corpse.  Instantly, he started to tumble forward, inadvertently shoving Frequency-Of-Sunlight to the side as he...

Update

Hey ya'll.  I have become, in some way, *ill*.  It's not great, I don't recommend it.  As a result - and because whatever I wrote in my feverish sleep was typo filled nonsense and not actually narrative - this week's chapter will be delayed a day or two.  I will also be taking next week off, to hopefully recover fully.

Production of both my works continues.  I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 38

Holy shit, I've ticked over to four digit Patreon income.  I don't... even know what to do about this.  Do I celebrate?  I don't know how to even feel.  I make a living off of sharing stories with people.  It's not a huge income, but it's mine, and it's from you, and I'm so grateful.

Thanks to everyone who got me here.  Now enjoy cat stuff.

Also, oh no.  One chapter of KCKS isn't tagged properly on here.  This is gonna drive me nuts.

_...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 182

“This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here”  -Sandia National Laboratories, Long-term nuclear waste warning message-

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“You know,” James said from the back of the van that he was sitting in, “I actually expected my dramatic gesture to make this faster, not slower?”

He was leaning with his back against the interior wall of the van, one leg dangling out of the open back doors towar...

Kitty Cat Kill Sat - Chapter 37

The fresh crisis comes as we’re just finishing our first ever weekly meeting.

For the last two hundred years or so, ever since I really started to get a handle on things, began understanding how to work with the station instead of just survive it, and opened up my paws and gunports to helping where I could, time has been a challenge for me.

Time was a challenge before, too.  But also during that era of my life, for different reasons.

Before the uplift - which I am cer...

The Daily Grind - Chapter 181

And our next narrative arc begins.  I had fun writing this one, but it's also kind of a lot of setup?  Also some ethics stuff.  So, you know, prepare for that I guess.

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“Hatred outlives the hateful.”  -Rancor, Magic the Gathering-

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An hour flew by in a real hurry.

James had dropped by their armory to grab some gear before teleporting down to some minuscule town in Utah and bailing JP out of whatever problem he’d caused...